In the present review we collected the main studies regarding the role of chitinase-like proteins (CLPs), belonging to the family of Glyco_18 domain-containing proteins, in different cancers. In humans, 3 chitinaselike proteins have been identified: YKL-40 (CHI3L1), YKL-39 (CHI3L2) and stabilin-1-interacting chitinase-like protein (SI-CLP). CLPs are produced by several types of cells and combine the properties of cytokines and growth factors. The high levels of CLPs were identified in the circulation of the patients with inflammatory diseases and various types of tumors. We highlighted the main known functions of CLPs in normal and pathological conditions, their contribution to metastasis development, angiogenesis, invasion and other processes in cancer, the correlation of the levels of CLPs with tumour progression. Our data also contribute to the understanding of question how CLP could be useful for cancer patient benefit.
Production of reactive oxygen species by neutrophils was analyzed by a chemiluminometric method in the presence of luminol in ten healthy donors, eight patients with gastric cancer and ten patients with gastric precancer. The neutrophil chemiluminominescence response to recombinant tumour necrosis factor (rTNF) was almost five times lower in the gastric patients when compared with healthy donors and precancer patients. The chemiluminescence response to zymosan was decreased only in the gastric cancer patients with chemiluminescence index activation (CTNF) less than 1. The observed changes of neutrophil functions are thought to result in a decrease of neutrophil cytotoxic activity in gastric cancer patients.
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